A UNLV scientist will help NASA with its Mars mission by studying rocks collected from the red planet.

Remember Cousin Eddie — Randy Quaid’s lovable buffoon in National Lampoon’s Vacation series?

The day I wrote this, I woke up with soreness in my right arm, having been an early recipient of the newly approved Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Development of the vaccine in less than a year from the first reported case of COVID-19 in the United States is a testament to our ability to mobilize resources in times of crisis and to the hard work and ingenuity of the global scientific community.

Kenya Young paced in the back parking lot of Valley Hospital Medical Center.

This year, we’ve faced COVID-19, a new deadly virus that has changed our lives and brought up many new challenges like lockdowns, social distancing, and mask-wearing. To cope with the ongoing pandemic, scientists all over the world are competing to develop the COVID-19 vaccine that will be safe and effective.

In this episode of Beyond the Scoreboard, Marcel Reece, former NFL All Pro and current Senior Advisor to the Las Vegas Raiders, provides some insights into the Raiders' recently announced Al Davis-Eddie Robinson Leadership Academy. The Academy is being created to prepare minority candidates for leaderships in the NFL and across sports in general.

The complex Nevada economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and recession can be explained by one letter of the alphabet – the letter K. The “K-shaped recovery” describes how white-collar jobs are able to prosper during the COVID-19 pandemic, while blue-collar workers are forced out of the labor market or subjected to unsafe working conditions for minimal compensation. Those on the upper half of a K distribution recover at a much quicker pace than those on the lower half. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, sectors on the upper half of the K include technology, retail, and software services; sectors on the lower half include hospitality, travel, and food services.

More than nine months after the official start of the pandemic, the entire world could be close to receiving what for many would be a miracle, and the most anticipated Christmas gift in 2020: the distribution of a safe, effective and accessible vaccine that shows the light at the end of the tunnel, in which for many it was a very difficult year. Adriana Arévalo from the Voice of America tells us that, apparently, that longed-for moment is yet to come.

Just as the world seemed to be turning the corner in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, a new mutation in the novel coronavirus has started to make things look bleaker again, as several countries imposed fresh lockdowns to curb fresh transmission.